Touching the Surface by Kimberly Sabatini - OPTIONAL

Sabatini, Kimberly Touching the Surface, 336 pgs.  Simon Pulise, 2012.  $16.99  

Content: Language: R (55 swears; 2 “F”); Mature Content: PG-13; Violence: PG-13.   

Elliott wakes up in the afterlife not remembering who she was in life.  She is at a place called Obirmil and she knows the counselor from her first two visits to afterlife, but as she works with her counselor to remember what she did in life and what lessons she still needs to learn she gets discouraged.  She also knows two boys at Obirmil—Trevor and Oliver.  Trevor hates her and Oliver loves her, but Elliott can’t remember why.  Elliott has to figure out her life plan in order to move on, but it’s more complicated than she ever expected.   

At times part of this story were hard to grasp, but it’s because the main character was trying to figure out the world around her.  I loved how her past was slowly revealed building to the climax and answered the question of what caused her death.  This is a creative look at the afterlife.  The two “F” words are completely unnecessary and they make it hard to recommend for a middle school library.  I enjoyed the read and the cover is great. 

HS-OPTIONAL.  Reviewer, C. Peterson.